Page 28 - Delaware Lawyer - Spring 2022

FEATURE | OF COUNSEL: JOSHUA W. MARTIN III
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in science and music. His mother, who taught at the elementary school he attended, encouraged him to learn piano and organ, urging him to stick with it even after he gained proficiency in wind instruments and wanted only to perform in his high school band. His father attended col- lege, but dropped out to earn money by opening a barber shop, which be- came his career. Yet he and his wife cultivated Josh’s interest in science, furnishing their small home with a collection of science texts more extensive than what was offered by Josh’s high school librar y. And as superintendent of his church’s Sun- day School for 50 years, Mr. Martin ensured his son’s solid footing in the church and its teachings.
In college, Josh continued to excel, earning a B.S. degree in physics at Case Western Reserve University, then taking a job with the DuPont Company in New Jersey. At night, he pursued a master’s degree in materials science, which he almost completed before making a career change to enter law school full time at Rutgers, where he developed an in- terest in patent law. After graduation, he joined the patent department at Hercules Inc. (now Ashland Global) and moved to Wilmington in 1974. His Hercules colleagues quickly re- alized he possessed an extraordinary skill set. They were not alone. Within three years, Governor Pete DuPont appointed Josh to the Public Service Commission, which regulates the state’s public utilities. After a year, the Governor appointed him as Chair of the Commission. Apparently, the Governor knew a gem when he saw one, because in 1982, he appointed Josh to the Delaware Superior Court, and a brief two years later, as Resident Judge of New Castle County. There,
amid a busy caseload, Josh created and oversaw the Superior Court’s Annexed Arbitration Program, one of the most innovative and ultimately successful court programs in the na- tion. Another job, another success. This man had become a superstar in Delaware while still in his 30s. There would be no stopping him.
After a divorce early in life, he met and married Cynthia Primo. She had experience in corporate management and furnished him valuable help and advice, as his partner in life and his advisor in business, after Bell Atlan- tic Delaware (which became Verizon Delaware) lured Josh away from the Superior Court in 1990 to serve as its Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary. With only three years under his belt as an executive, Josh was nominated by the News Jour- nal as Delawarean of the Century in Business. Six years later, he became President and CEO of Verizon Dela- ware, overseeing every aspect of its telecommunications business in the state. After years of fending off offers by law firms to enter private practice, Josh joined Potter Anderson & Cor- roon LLP as a partner in 2005. There, he began his now-storied career as a leading arbitration and dispute reso- lution attorney, handling an array of complex ADR cases, including many highly technical matters with tens of millions of dollars in dispute. He is a member of the American Arbitration Association Roster of Neutrals and the International Institute for Con- flict Prevention & Resolution (CPR) Panel of Distinguished Neutrals. His successful ADR work earned him elec- tion as a Fellow to the esteemed Col- lege of Commercial Arbitrators and to the Tech List of the Silicon Valley Arbitration and Mediation Center. He was named Lawyer of the Year in Wilmington for both Arbitration
and Mediation multiple times, and has been recognized in The Best Lawyers in America since 2007. For a number of years he taught judicial mediation at the National Judicial College and ADR at Widener Uni- versity Delaware Law School. He ser ved as Chair of Potter Anderson’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee for over a decade, and has advised and mentored countless young attorneys along the way.
The same dedication to public ser- vice that caused Josh to excel on the Public Ser vice Commission and Su- perior Court also led him to serve on the boards of a number of prominent organizations. He served as President of the Delaware State Bar Association; Chair of the Delaware Economic & Financial Advisor y Council (DEFAC), United Way of Delaware, Wilming- ton Renaissance Corporation and the YMCA’s Black Achievers Program; and as Trustee of Case Western Re- serve University, Winterthur Museum, Delaware Community Foundation, Goldey-Beacom College and Wilming- ton Friends School; and as Director and Trustee of ChristianaCare. His awards include the DSBA’s First State Dis- tinguished Service Award, Rutgers’ Distinguished Alumni Award and, with Cynthia, the Delaware Cham- ber of Commerce’s prestigious Josiah Mar vel Cup and the United Way’s Tocqueville Award. He has also served on nationally prominent for- profit boards — a credit to his business savvy and legal expertise.
Josh began life with no advantage of privilege. From a Black family of modest means, he lived until col- lege in segregated and deeply racist surroundings where restaurants and organizations barred him for his skin color and the books issued in his so-called “separate but equal” school were tattered hand-me-downs from
26 DELAWARE LAWYER SPRING 2022